It also scares other people, which explains why a mobile-home tenants group and towns such as Park City, Bourbonnais, Elk Grove Village and New Lenox are pressing Gov. Rod Blagojevich to veto the legislation.

Blagojevich, who received the bill earlier this month after it was approved by the legislature, hasn't taken a position yet, said spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch.

Opponents say the bill, known as the Mobile Home Park Act, usurps local zoning laws and would allow mobile-home park owners to make more money by squeezing in additional homes. It could also compromise safety, critics say.

In Park City, for example, mobile homes placed side by side currently have to be separated by 14 feet, a distance the bill would reduce to 10 feet. The end-to-end requirement is 20 feet, compared with 5 feet proposed under the bill.

The measure was supported by the Illinois Manufactured Housing Association and the Illinois Housing Institute, groups that represent mobile-home-park owners and developers.

Its sponsor in the state House, Rep. Ralph Capparelli (D-Chicago), said the bill was intended to make rents more affordable.

Capparelli said that when park owners try to replace an older home with a new model, towns often deny the move, citing zoning laws approved since the original home was installed. Such ordinances often change the lot size or setback requirements in effect when the original home was purchased.

By trying to make it easier for park owners to replace homes, he said, "We were just trying to help the renters."

John Zajicek, vice president of the Illinois Housing Institute, said it's doubtful the bill would produce higher densities.

"This has nothing to do with increasing density," said Zajicek, who lives in Freeport, where he owns a mobile-home park. "Even if someone wanted to do that, it's cost prohibitive to move all the utilities and the concrete pad [under the homes]."

Opponents say the bill would override local zoning laws and eliminate setback and side-yard requirements--even in towns with home-rule authority. The bill would allow mobile homes to be placed at the edge of a lot, right next to sidewalks or streets.

"We think those kinds of decisions are best made at the local level," said Matt Davidson, director of legislative affairs for the Illinois Municipal League, which opposes the measure.

Frank Koehler, village administrator for Bourbonnais, opposes the bill for the same reason. "I think it creates a precedent where the state dictates what zoning regulations are," he said.

Although Bourbonnais doesn't have any mobile-home parks, it passed regulations two years ago that would require much wider separation between mobile homes and deeper setbacks than provided in the proposed law, Koehler said.

The elimination of setbacks in the bill also caught the eye of Terry Nelson, president of the Mobile Home Owners Association of Illinois, a tenants' group of about 2,000.

Because the trend is toward bigger, longer homes, eliminating a 10-foot setback would allow a park owner to put a new home on the same lot and charge a higher rent, she said.

Supporters of the bill "are development companies," said Nelson, who lives in a mobile home near Elk Grove Village.

"I just hope we can stop it," she said. "It will be taking away the power from the [governments] supposed to be keeping us safe."